


Hypothermia

by Pitkin, skimmonsfiction



Series: Snowed In; Skimmons Blizzard Oneshots [2]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Blizzards & Snowstorms, Car Accidents, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-27
Updated: 2018-12-27
Packaged: 2019-09-28 09:15:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17180186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pitkin/pseuds/Pitkin, https://archiveofourown.org/users/skimmonsfiction/pseuds/skimmonsfiction
Summary: "Promise you won't roofie me?" Jemma blurted out when she accepted the hot chocolate. "That was a joke." She added. She didn't think Skye was a kidnapper anymore, she could see that she was just trying to help. Her head and neck had clearly taken a hit and she still felt cold to the bone.________________





	Hypothermia

The first thing Jemma noticed when she started to open her stiff, heavy eyelids was that she couldn't feel her nose or her lips and the rest of her face was tingling. As the rest of her body began to regain feeling after being unconscious, she realized she was wearing a thick hoodie that didn't belong to her, and there was nothing else under it. The pants felt too baggy to be hers as well, and suddenly Jemma's eyes flashed open. There was an arm around her waist and a body tucked tightly into her back, the both of them beneath blankets. But who was she with?   
  
A gasp came out of Jemma's mouth and she jumped away from her bed companion only to smack her head against a low ceiling when she tried to stand up, sending her toppling into the nearby wall. It took her a moment to orient herself and realize she had been on a mattress in the back of a van that only had driver and passenger windows. Had she been kidnapped? Where were her clothes? "Who are you?!" Jemma crossed her arms over her chest and her words came out with the sound of her teeth chattering.

Skye got an elbow to the ribs as the wounded stranger woke up and scuttled away. “Easy! Careful!” She threw her hands up, palms out as she backed up against the opposite wall. “I’m Skye!” She blurted. She’d been sliding about the snow covered road in her van when she’d spotted the tail lights of a car that had crashed into a tree. The driver - who was currently chattering and cowering against the side of her van - had been unconscious, bleeding and turning different shades of purple and blue under the half inch layer of snow that had covered her through the broken windows. Skye had tried to call for help but being in the equivalent of ‘the middle of fucking nowhere’ and in a near white-out blizzard, she couldn’t get service no matter what she’d tried. Without any other options, Skye had done what any normal person would have done - she carefully checked to make sure it didn’t look like the stranger had severely fucked up her neck, had wrapped a scarf firmly around to keep it steady and had carried her to the van. Unfortunately, the van’s engine crapped out in the cold so the heater wasn’t an option and the stranger was in wet clothes...so Skye patched her up, changed her into dry clothes and wrapped them both up in all the blankets and towels she had to try and keep the woman from going into hypothermia. 

“It’s okay, you’re safe! But I think you hit your head pretty hard and your temperature probably isn’t back to normal yet-,” Skye leaned forward and reached for the heaviest of the blankets she’d had around them to keep them warm and leaned over with the intention of wrapping it around the (fucking gorgeous) stranger on the other side of the van, not at all putting it together that the woman hadn’t been conscious for Skye’s knight in shining armor snowstorm save. 

"S-stay b-back!" Jemma chattered. Her back slammed into the wall and her head went with it, causing a jolt of pain to explode in her head and down her spine. She blindly grabbed for things around her, scrambling for a weapon, but she found nothing. She'd woken up in a stranger's car- a van no less- without her clothes. Her legs shook and she wondered if the woman had done something to her. The pounding in her head finally got to her and she brought a hand up to her temple, cringing at the bump, the split skin, and the soreness that was underneath her fingertips.    
  
"Wh-where am I?" She closed her eyes tightly, but she was too afraid to leave them that way with the stranger getting so close to her and she quickly thrust out a hand to block any potential attacks.

Skye cringed and inhaled a hiss of pain in sympathy when the woman hit her head down. “Careful!” She shouted as she moved back and put her hands up again. “You were in an accident, lady!” she said quickly. She sat down cross-legged and kept her hands in view once she realized she’d managed to scare the crap out of the poor woman. She nodded toward the front of the van. “Your car was wrapped around a tree. I saw your tail lights and stopped to help,” She slowly leaned over and grabbed her cell phone, tapped in the code to open it and slowly leaned over to toss it onto the mattress in front of the woman so she could grab it if she wanted. “I couldn’t get any service to call for help. You were bleeding and covered in snow and...well honestly I thought you were dead at first actually,” She frowned and finally paused a moment. “We’re in the middle of nowhere, stuck on the side of the road in a blizzard. I’m not trying to hurt you at all. I was trying to get your temperature up. I’m sorry I scared you-,” 

"A car accident?" Jemma asked, confused. She remembered driving, but she didn't remember crashing. Though as she squinted and looked out the van's windshield through the snow, she could see a car smashed up against a tree and covered in a thick layer of snow. She couldn't see it very well but it looked like hers. The head wound made sense this way. Or was it just an excuse for something the woman- Skye- had done to her? She seemed genuine, but then again didn't all serial killers seem normal?    
  
"Where are my clothes?" Jemma asked. That was the next order of business.

Skye pointed to the back of the van, where the wet clothes were hanging, folded in half over a stretch of metal racks. “They were soaked. You were turning blue. My engine stalled so I can’t turn the heater on so I put you in some of my dry clothes,” She explained. “Please at least wrap a blanket around yourself, you’re still shaking,” She frowned again, her forehead scrunching as if she couldn’t figure out why the clothes were such a big deal. “What’s your name?” 

Jemma opened her mouth to give her name, but she wasn't sure about who she was giving it to. She was still hung up on the fact that the complete stranger had undressed her.    
  
"D-did you do anything else?" Jemma asked. She snatched the blanket quickly and wrapped it around herself, but the shivering continued and she crossed her arms across her chest, pressing her knees together.

Skye’s eyebrows arched in confusion. “Did I do-,” Her face twisted, aghast at the idea that she might have touched the woman in a way to violate her. “ _ Jesus _ , lady, I was trying to save your life, not molest you!” She snapped and moved her hands finally. Instead of holding her palms up, she crossed her arms over her chest, both because she was offended that her generosity had gotten twisted into something so terrible and because she was kind of cold sitting there. 

"You can hardly blame me, I woke up in a van and you undressed me!" Jemma's voice was shrill and she slid a bit closer to her clothes and away from Skye. She could see the genuine look of horror on her face because of Jemma's accusation. It was reassuring that Skye reacted so badly because it meant she couldn't be a sociopath. "Thank you. Sorry." She mumbled as an afterthought. She pulled the blanket tighter around herself and crossed her legs to sit more comfortably. "My name's Jemma."

“You have hypothermia!!” Skye shifted to face the front of the van and leaned her side against a curtain covered wall of the van since she knew it was one of the more insulated panels. She ran her hand through her hair and sighed. At least she got the woman’s name. “I’m Skye,” Skye reminded her since she wasn’t sure if Jemma had properly processed that earlier. “I really just wanted to make sure you were okay,” She insisted again. After a moment, she sighed and moved over to the small desk over the tiny cube fridge. She’d left her laptop on so she could plug in a usb mug warmer and had filled a mug with instant hot chocolate to heat up before she’d gone to try and keep Jemma warm again. She picked the mug up and moved back toward Jemma, only moving until she was close enough to hold the mug out for her. “Here, it’s hot at least, it’ll help.” 

"Promise you won't roofie me?" Jemma blurted out when she accepted the hot chocolate. "That was a joke." She added. She didn't think Skye was a kidnapper anymore, she could see that she was just trying to help. Her head and neck had clearly taken a hit and she still felt cold to the bone.

Skye arched just her right eyebrow and was about to ask Jemma if she wanted her to taste test it as proof when Jemma announced it was a joke and her shoulders relaxed a bit. She shifted back to go set up another mug for herself with the instant mix and what was left of the bottle of water. She stirred it up and then sat back down as she waited for it to warm up. She grabbed one of the blankets and wrapped it around her shoulders. “How’s your head feel?” She asked. “Anything else hurt? Like...possibly broken or...anything?” 

Jemma's face twisted up a bit with guilt when she saw how concerned Skye seemed to be for her well being even though they didn't know each other. She sipped on the hot chocolate and tried to take a deep breath to relax herself and assess. Other than her splitting headache and the soreness from nearly freezing to death she didn't think she was injured.    
  
"No, I'm okay.... how long was I out?" Jemma asked. With the storm dumping snow on them so thickly it was hard to tell what time of day it was.

“Oh, um…” Skye leaned over and reached for her cell phone to bring the screen back on. “About, um...a bit over a half hour since I managed to get you in here,” She looked over at Jemma. “I’m not really sure how long you were out in your car.” She admitted. “What’s the last thing you remember?” She asked as she realized she should probably ask questions because of the whole concussion thing, right? 

"There was a deer..." Jemma said as the memories came flashing back. She'd been driving out to her cousin's house for the holidays and she was out when the blizzard hit. A deer crossed the road and Jemma remembered braking quickly to avoid hitting it and then spinning out. "I'm normally a very good driver." She wasn't sure why she assured Skye of this fact, but she said it anyway. 

Skye grimaced as she pictured having to swerve in around a deer in a blizzard. "Good thing that tree stopped you," she said. "There's a forty foot drop about twenty yards further than where you hit it." She shuddered at the thought of Jemma and her car rolling down that drop to the bottom. "I'm afraid you're stuck with me until we can get a signal or someone comes upon us," she said. "If the snow lets up, I can take a look at the engine, see if I can get the old girl running again, but, for now," she shrugged and bit her tongue to keep from blurting 'you look good in my shirt.' 

"That's not such a bad thing." Jemma shrugged. Her face quickly flushed a bit because of the realization that she thought Skye was quite pretty and had just spoken accordingly. At least it helped with the numbness. "It could be worse. I could be dead." Jemma corrected her statement and said matter-of-factly, sipping on her hot chocolate after to hide her little smirk. She couldn't believe she'd nearly accused Skye of rape when she'd been such a valiant save-the-damsel-in-distress type of character. Not just anyone would have stopped.

Skye’s eyebrows arched a little bit. She was going to assume this meant Jemma at least trusted that she wasn’t some kind of serial killer now, so that was something. “Thankfully, this is not the case,” She cringed again at the thought of it. “Before the deer snafu, where were you headed?” She asked with a curious tilt of her head. “Somewhere they’re gonna realize, with the weather and all, that you’re late to arrive, yeah?” 

"My cousin Lance's." Jemma said, her teeth still chattering slightly. She got to her knees to crawl onto the mattress and sit next to Skye, where there was a whole collection of blankets warm from their previous sleeping place. "It's his first christmas married to his wife, Bobbi, and they wanted to host. I told them it was a bad idea with the weather the way it is when they live so far out here." Jemma chuckled and shook her head. She hoped they didn't worry too much when she didn't show up and they couldn't call her. Or maybe it would be better if her family bothered the police until a search and rescue team was sent out. “How did you end up out here?” She asked. Maybe Skye’s answer to this would ease any leftover concern about her character. 

Skye moved without thinking when Jemma came closer. She wrapped a blanket around their legs and then grabbed one of the larger ones and shifted closer to wrap it around both their shoulders, absently sending her hand lightly along Jemma's back in an attempt to warm her up a little more. Her hand paused midway in her back and her eye widened a moment before she threw her head back and let out a laugh. "You're not going to believe me," She snickered and shook her head. "But I was heading to the same place," she looked over at Jemma and grinned at the crazy coincidence. "It's my first holiday back in the states since I've returned from the IFRC," she explained. "Bobbi insisted that I come for a visit," she motioned with th hand holding the other end of the blanket that wasn't on Jemma's back. "And here we are." She let out a small snort of laughter through her nose. Of all the crazy coincidences that could have happened in such a situation, it was a good thing Skye was running late or she might not have wound up on the road after Jemma had already had her accident.

Jemma's brows raised up on her forehead and for a moment she found herself shifting away from Skye, shivering under her touch. Her answer felt a little too convenient and suddenly the distrust was back. She could have taken any name Jemma used and made it seem like she was a friend to gain Jemma's trust.   
  
"What's Bobbi's maiden name? Her new last name?" Jemma asked quickly.

Skye looked over at Jemma. Okay, she probably should have expected skepticism. She sighed but easily answered and then some. "Morse. Hunter. In that order. She grew up at 2349 Hilldale street. I grew up three blocks over and we used to runaway to each other's houses whenever we got grounded. I would have been at the wedding, but I was in Chile taking care of communications for the red cross after that massive Earthquake." She babbled off the facts an leaned to grab her phone. After unlocking it, she went to her gallery and flipped through photos until she came to the most recent one (which was admittedly from a couple years prior) of her and Bobbi and held the phone over to Jemma freely so she could swipe through the entirety of her phone gallery if she wanted. 

"Okay, wow." Jemma sighed and looked at the picture for a few seconds before handing it back to Skye and scooting in closer so they could share all the blankets. "That's quite a coincidence." She chuckled nervously, again feeling guilty for being accusatory toward Skye. “I wonder what they’ll think when neither of us show up?” 

Skye smiled warmly rather than holding onto the fact that Jemma kept assuming the worst about her. She was sure if their situations were reversed, she’d have some misgivings about Jemma. So instead, she went right back to fussing over the blankets around them to try and cover them both up as much as possible while huddling close together for warmth and running her hand along Jemma’s back and arm again because, really, she was the one who needed to be warmed up first for all the time she’d been in the open air in her car.

“Bobbi will probably think I missed my flight,” Skye sighed. She reached out of the towels for her first aid kit on the floor and brought up a thermometer, one of the ones that poked into a person’s ear to take their temp. “Once we get you back to a normal temperature, I’ll see if I can get the engine started, maybe run the heat. Stay still a sec,” She reached up to gently put the thermometer in Jemma’s ear and pressed a few of the buttons until it beeped, then brought it down so they could both see the temperature on the light up screen. “97.3...drastically better than when I first got you in here.” She set the thermometer down and looked over at Jemma again shuffling closer again to try and keep her own body heat as close to Jemma as she could.

“Do you feel dizzy at all? Light headed? Do you feel any pressure in your head besides it feeling like a headache? Blurred vision? Nausea? Anything like that? I guess I should have asked you the standard questions by now. We usually have people do word recall on location for incidents, seems a bit easier depending on remoteness.” Jemma had lost consciousness though and her head hurt from the injury so Skye was sure she was concussed. She supposed if Jemma fell back asleep, she’d have to keep waking her up every so often just in case. Her biggest worry outside of the hypothermia at the moment was whether or not Jemma’s head injury could mean she was bleeding in her brain at all. They had no way to really tell if something like that was happening. 

Jemma made a shrugging motion with one shoulder to itch her ear, which was a bit ticklish and still tingling from Skye's sudden poke with the cold metal tip of the thermometer. She blinked a few times and took a moment to access her own physical health before answering. She didn't miss that Skye worked for the international red cross though. She was a humanitarian, perfect. Not serial killer-like at all. Except for the van.    
  
"I probably have a concussion." Jemma sighed. That meant once they got rescued she'd have to get checked out in a hospital. Jemma grabbed Skye's phone and shined the flashlight directly into her eyes for further assessment. "Are my pupils uneven?" She asked.

Skye looked up at Jemma’s face with the flashlight shining at her eyes. She squinted and then nodded. "The left one's wider than the right," she confirmed. Obviously that couldn't be a good sign. "Anything else feel off?" She didn't want to give Jemma any medication,  afraid it might affect Jemma's ability to know if something was seriously wrong pain wise. Realizing she had the concussion, though, had Skye chewing on her bottom lip. "Maybe I should go work on the engine now. Get her running for heat and gt to Bobbi and Lance's so we can get you to the hospital." She murmured.

"That's not a bad idea." Jemma nodded. She pressed her hand against her head wound just to get a better idea about its extent. It wasn't too bad, but her skin was split and it would definitely leave a mark. She could use a stitch or two and a checkup wouldn't hurt. "I'm a bit lightheaded. Very tired." She added. Jemma was a biochemist, but Skye worked with the red cross so she figured Skye had probably seen a bit more in the medical care department.

Skye had done what she could to patch up the wound on Jemma's head. She worked in keeling the communications running for the red cross but she'd been pulled into the front lines from time to time and knew the basics of first aid. She needed to get Jemma somewhere that they could access hospital care. Skye nodded. "Okay," she started pulling her winter gear on: knit cap, fingerless gloves and a thick leather jacket over her hoodie after she pulled the hood up. She rummaged around until she came up with a tool box.    
  
"Why don't you lay down and rest under some more of the covers? I'll take a look at the engine and get this thing running. I won't take too long," she promised. "Once we get her going, we'll move to the front seats and make our way to Bobbi and Lance's." She looked at Jemma. "Sound like a plan?"

"Be careful," Jemma frowned, concern laced in her voice. It was cold outside and hard to see even a foot out the window. She'd seen movies where people got lost in blizzards and she'd have no idea how to find Skye if she got lost.

Skye smiled at her and gave her arm a gentle squeeze. "If you need anything, honk the horn, yeah?" She asked. She zipped her jackets up, popped up the collars and pulled the hood up over her knit cap as she climbed to the driver's seat, took a deep breath and climbed out with her tool box and flashlight lantern. She popped the good up, hung the lantern light from the propped hood and got down to work. A half an hour, some very cold, blue fingertips and runny, cold red nose later and Skye couldn't get the engine to turn over. She gathered her tools and lantern and dropped the hood in frustration. She shook off the plastic poncho she had pulled from the toolbox to keep the snow off her coats and climbed into the car, where she slammed the door a little harder than she should have, again out of frustration. She put her tools away, pulled the wet poncho, gloves and cap off and hung them to dry them started rummaging as she occasionally blew hot air on jerked clasped hands while her teeth chattered loudly and she sniffled from the cold induced runny nose.

Jemma groaned and rolled over on the mattress to face Skye and the door instead of the other wall. One hand was holding the blankets tightly all the way up to her chin and the other was covering the ear not on the pillow. Her ears were ringing and her head was throbbing, sure signs of a fairly severe concussion along with the nausea she started to feel once Skye left the van and her adrenaline from waking up in her situation had faded.    
  
“Please tell me it worked.” She mumbled, teeth still chattering some. She held up the blanket for Skye to hurry under so they could both stay warm.

Shivering, Skye crawled under the covers and snuggled into Jemma's warmth. She knew she should make them more warm drinks since that would help but she was so cold she just wanted a few minutes to thaw out. She also wasn't all that put out to have to snuggle up with Jemma on top of it all, but she sure wasn't going to say that out loud.  "It didn't, " she sighed through chattering teeth. "When I can feel my fingers again, we'll check our phones for signals, see what we can do." She would make them muss of hot chocolate again on her USB mug warmer, keep them warm. Skye grabbed the mylar heat reflecting blanket that was from her emergency kit and wrapped it over top of everything to try and insult the heat all inside. She was so cold right then that it was hard to think straight.

“I think...” Jemma started, not quite clear whether her hesitation was from her mind or from her shivering and chattering teeth. Either way, she continued, figuring things couldn’t really get worse at the moment. “Bobbi was trying to set us up.” She finished. It made sense. Bobbi had been talking about her wonderful attractive lady friend for some time now and had been trying to convince Jemma to let her set up a blind date. Maybe Skye was that friend. Suddenly though, her eyes went wide at the realization that she may offend the woman who saved her life. “Unless of course you aren’t-“ she paused, cheeks finally flushing pink a bit despite the lack of heat because of her embarrassment and incapability to find the right word. “Gay.” She blurted awkwardly. “Or into me at all, we’ve only just met, and now I’ve made this far too awkward.” Jemma huffed and exhaled air from her mouth, forcing a laugh and looking down at the pillow to avoid staring into Skye’s eyes, which were only inches away.

Skye’s eyes blinked open as Jemma spoke. Her eyebrows arched but she remained quiet until she was sure Jemma was done. Leaning her head up, she propped a hand under it to hold her up. Her right eyebrow arched. "Yeah? What'd she say about me?" She asked before a small grin curled along her lips. Bobbi had begged Skye not to skip out on this holiday event because she wanted to see her and because she wanted Skye to meet Lance's family.  If she'd simply sent a photo of Jemma and specified that she wanted Skye to meet Hunter's lesbian cousin because she thought they'd be cute together, Skye might not have been running so late to the shindig. Clearly that would have been much worse, though, as she wouldn't have been around to come across Jemma's accident. She leaned closer and added in a mock whisper. "For the record, I'm super gay." She gave Jemma a small wink and brilliant, if slightly discolored from the cold,  smile. 

“Oh really?” Jemma teasingly questioned, trying not to let on how much her heart rate spiked when Skye said it and leaned in like that. They were already so close. If Jemma wanted to- no, if she had the courage to, because she definitely wanted to- then she could have lifted her head from the pillow and kissed her. It seemed like a bit early to be thinking those kinds of things as they had only just met, but the thought was there and Jemma couldn’t stop it. “Does this knight in shining rainbow armor act always get you the girls you save from becoming icicles?” She joked and giggled.

The corners of Skye’s eyes crinkled as she chuckled at the way Jemma giggled at the end of her joke. “Only the ones with cute accents…” she answered. Without hesitation now, despite the fact that they’d started off with Jemma waking up thinking Skye was up to something nefarious with her, Skye shifted, leaning closer with the full intention of initiating a kiss. Interruption came just before their lips could touch, coming in the form of loud pounding on the driver side window. The sudden loud sound startled the hell out of Skye and made her body jolt and jump back. Her hand flew to her chest over her suddenly racing heart as her head snapped toward the windows at the front of the car...and that’s when she noticed the reflection of the red and blue flashing lights reflecting through the windows in the darkness that had fallen as the sun had started setting. “ _ Shit, _ ” she breathed and then let out a nervous chuckle as she looked over at Jemma. “Looks like we’re saved,” She started to move toward the front but then stopped and looked back at Jemma. “To be continued, yeah?” She grinned and gave her another wink and then moved toward the front just as the cop was pounding on the window again. She pulled the handle and pushed the door open. “Easy, easy, that’s my home you’re assaulting,” She joked but was grinning, relieved that they wouldn’t freeze to death in the blizzard. 

“To be continued...” Jemma breathed as Skye lightly scolded the cops for banging on her van. She didn’t even have time to recover from their near kiss before a paramedic was inside the cramped quarters of the van and inspecting her head.    
  
“Are you Jemma Simmons?” The police officer asked them from outside. They were wearing heavy coats and as Jemma looked around them she could see the thick layer of snow covering everything. It was a wonder the authorities had been able to find them. The pads and monitors that the paramedic stuck on her were even colder against her skin and she shivered when her blanket was removed so they could move her.   
  
“Yes, I was in a car accident and Skye got me out. Her van’s broken down.” Jemma chattered through her teeth.

“We should get you checked out at the hospital for that head injury.” He suggested. Either way they’d be leaving in the ambulance and be coming back for Skye’s van later. 

“I had no service on my cell,” Skye was telling an offer nearby as she handed over her phone for proof, though he didn’t seem all that convinced that Skye wasn’t some crazy vagrant who’d injured an out of towner on purpose, at least not until Skye handed her identification over and Jemma comment about Skye pulling her out of the smashed up car. 

“Man, she was hypothermic when I got to her, at least put her in the heated ambulance before you start taking layers off and probing her - I told you before you even opened the door she’s got a concussion and hypothermia,” Skye frowned at them even as she did her own shivering and spoke through her own chattering teeth. As soon as she’d gotten out of the van the paramedic had tried to come over to her but she’d pointed them to the back doors of the van to get easier access to Jemma first since she wasn’t injured, just cold. 

“You take her to the hospital, we’ll take this one-,” 

Skye cut the officer off immediately. “In the same ambulance, thank you. I’ll ride along with her. You can contact the Hunters and let them know we’ll be along when the weather breaks,” She was firm in her responses, not at all willing to let them separate her from Jemma until she knew for sure that Jemma was physically alright from her accident and the cold. 

“Is that so?” The officer asked, eyebrows arched. 

Skye smirked at him. “Why don’t you go ahead and radio Sheriff Coulson, tell him about this situation and see what he says? While you waste your time on that, these nice medics will take my friend into the warm ambulance and I’ll grab our things,” She turned to Jemma and asked. “Suitcase in the trunk or backseat?” she asked as they were finally bringing her to the ambulance. 

“T-trunk.” Jemma stuttered as the paramedic threw the blanket over her shoulders and walked her the few feet over to the back of the ambulance. Thankfully, the blizzard had stopped actively dumping snow on them, but there were still flurries that stung Jemma’s close to numb face. She watched carefully as Skye headed over to her smashed up car to make sure she didn’t get lost or hurt until the paramedic finally ushered her into the ambulance and strapped her down on the gurney. The officer just stared, having no further objections after the mention of Sheriff Coulson like he was Skye’s friend.

Skye popped the trunk from inside the car and grabbed Jemma’s suitcase and her own bag from her van, stuffing her laptop and charger into her bag quickly. She grabbed her keys and locked up her van but left the blinkers on and went to join Jemma, putting their bags inside the ambulance as the police officer was coming back from the cruiser having radioed into the Sheriff. He handed Skye her phone and identification and mumbled about how he was instructed to have her van towed to Bobbi and Lance’s place once the roads were cleared. Skye thanked him and climbed inside the ambulance. She moved their bags out of the way so that the medic wouldn’t trip if he needed to move about. The officer shut the doors behind them as the medic handed Skye a blanket. 

“Thanks,” Skye nodded to him. She wrapped the blanket around herself and then leaned across to the stretcher they’d settled Jemma onto and picked up her closest hand. She pulled her gloves off and tucked them into her pocket, brought her hands up to her mouth and blew warm air into them a bit as she very, very slowly started to thaw out in the warmer vehicle away from the cold. She buckled the lap belt seat belt when medic instructed her to and then leaned over and picked up Jemma’s hand when it seemed like the paramedic was finished with all the readings he could take from Jemma until they reached the hospital. She pulled Jemma’s hand up between her own and warmed it up by lightly blowing out a warm exhale as she had her own hands. “So,” she said between puffs of warm air. “This ought to be quite the story to tell our grand kids, huh?” She teased with a big grin after the ambulance started moving through the snow. 

“Oh, so we’re having kids now are we?” Jemma bantered back, trying not to let on how excited she was about the possibilities that existed about what might be discovered between her and Skye. Even though they could have met at Bobbi’s under normal circumstances, she felt like this was, as Skye put it, an interesting story that had to lead to something special. It was on the assumption that they even lived near each other though. Of course, Bobbi wouldn’t try to set them up if it wasn’t a possibility and it wasn’t as though Skye’s home wasn’t movable if she didn’t already live in the city. Maybe Jemma was over analyzing, but it was what she did best and she was hoping something could happen between her and Skye.

Skye grinned and didn’t miss a beat even as a shiver or two still rolled through her on the slow drive to the hospital. “Only after we’ve exhausted the rest of our adventures in the winter wilderness together, of course,” She quipped with a nod. She figured from Jemma’s reply that she’d know it was mostly a joke, but honestly, she could envision a number of nice futures with Jemma. “I suppose that’ll give us time to figure out all the important tidbits about each other between now and then, though,” She added with another smile. Skye wasn’t too fussed about location aspects. She mostly used the van as her roaming hotel because she tended to move around a lot with her job. She always supposed if she found a reason to stay put she’d find something that required a bit less travel (into disaster zones no less) and a bit more stability. It was entirely possible she’d found a perfect reason for such a life change and that possibility turned out to be more exciting than Skye had anticipated when thinking about it in the past. 

“I would like to know more about you than just that your first name is Skye, you live in a van, and that you’re a sucker for a damsel in distress.” Jemma continued the lighthearted banter (possibly flirting? Jemma wasn’t sure) that was going on, but a splitting headache started to overtake her once she was getting warm enough to not be entirely numb. She winced and closed her eyes against the bright ambulance light and gave Skye’s hand a squeeze for her own comfort. There would definitely be some tests done when they got to the hospital and she had a feeling they would have a long night. “Speaking of distress…” Jemma cracked the joke and tried to touch her head laceration with her free hand, but the paramedic gently stopped her. 

“Coulson,” Skye replied. “My last name’s Coulson.” She explained. “I only live in the van because I tend to travel a lot for work. It cuts down on expenses and people don’t have to collect mail or check on an apartment or house for me while I’m gone, but I do beg to borrow their driveways often,” She smirked and leaned closer. “And you forgot that cute accent part. I’m a sucker for that too,” She grimaced in sympathy and gently squeezed Jemma’s hand back. She knew the paramedic couldn’t give her too much for the pain until they knew the severity of the head wound, but it was concerning that Jemma was feeling more pain now. Skye tried to remind herself that now that they were thawing out, Jemma was getting access to more pain receptors. She looked to the paramedic. “Can you dim the lights at all?” she asked. 

The paramedic shook his head. “Safety precaution, we need to be able to see clearly,” he answered. 

Skye kept hold of Jemma’s hand with one of hers, giving it a squeeze to make sure she knew she wasn’t letting go with the other. She fished around in the pocket of her bag for a few moments and finally came out with a pair of sunglasses. “Here, Rockstar,” she pulled the legs of the frame open and held them out for Jemma to take with her free hand. “Let’s get you to this hospital in style,” She made sure not to speak too loudly in an attempt to kept her voice from giving Jemma a worse headache. Then she tried to distract her a little more. “So Lance is your cousin, what about the rest of you family? Are they at the Hunter household too?” 

“Coulson? You mean the same as the sheriff?” Jemma questioned curiously as she slid on the sunglasses, which actually helped a bit. Closing her eyes was even better, so as much as she wanted to see Skye’s face, she let her eyes drift shut, but kept talking so they knew she was awake. “The rest of my family is in England... I presume yours is here?” She asked.

Skye tried not to frown too much while she watched Jemma rest back into the stretcher. She knew all kind of outcomes that came with head wounds and she was really hoping Jemma wasn't suffering from some kind of cranial bleed or fracture skull or worse. She didn't want too much of her concern to show in her face or her voice lest it further distress Jemma and make things worse. She was speaking rather clearly though so she at least was conscious of her own surroundings, which was definitely a good sign.    
  
"Just like the Sheriff's, yeah," Skye answered with a soft chuckle and a nod, imagining the ribbing the officer that had been leery of her would be getting for quite some time for his failure to realize it from her identification. "He and my mom live in town. My sister lives in the city. And I roam between the two until they ship me off to disaster areas," she answered with a smile. "Do you have any siblings? Are you just here for the holiday?" She very selfishly hoped that wasn't the case. She covered her hand back over top of Jemma's since it was free after handing her the glasses and just tried to focus on keeping her awake with conversation for now, both for the head wound and also because of her genuine interest.

“I live in the city, I work in a research lab at the university.” Jemma said through a tight jaw. The throbbing pain in her head only seemed to get worse, but Skye was proving to be a pretty good distraction with her conversation. “I’m a biochemist.” Jemma elaborated, sharing her job.

Skye watched Jemma's face carefully, taking careful note of specific muscles as they twitched or tightened. She sniffled slightly as going from the cold to the warmth started loosening everything up in her still reddened nose. "That sounds fancy," Skye joked. It sounded like it needed at least a few academic degrees. "Does that mean you're a professor or a doctor?" She asked. She heard the driver radio in to the hospital's emergency admin that they were about five more minutes out and she gave Jemma's hand a quick squeeze. "Hang in there, we're almost at the hospital," she hoped it'd give Jemma some extra reassurance.

“Both,” Jemma chuckled, “I do research and give lectures.” She explained. She also wanted to show off a bit for Skye in her areas of strength (academics) so she threw in one of her most impressive resumé facts. “I have two PhDs.” She informed Skye.

Skye let out a low whistle, definitely impressed. "Damn, I'm afraid if I ask anymore, you'll skyrocket even farther out of my league," she teased.

“Well it’s a good thing I don’t believe in leagues.” Jemma smiled and gave Skye’s hand a squeeze. “Never been much of a sports person.” She mumbled. “What do you do?”

Skye grinned. "Lucky me, in that case!" she said. "I work for the IFRC, the International  Federation Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. I'm part of their IT infrastructure, network and communications field team." She realized that was a lot of word jumble to take in. "Basically, when the shit hits the fan, be it disaster, skirmish, terrorist or war related, they send me in to get their phones, emails, computers and networks up, running and stable." A moment after she finished her comment, the ambulance stopped under the carport for the emergency room entrance. "We're  here," she let Jemma know.    
  
"You're going to have to, um," the paramedic nodded to Skye and Jemma's entwined hands.    
  
Skye looked at their hands and tried not to frown but nodded. "Right," she squeezed Jemma's hand. "Hey, I've gotta let go so they can get you out of this rig. I'm gonna grab our bags and I'll be right behind, okay?" She didn't know Jemma well enough to know if hospitals made her nervous. They definitely made Skye nervous, this one in particular as she'd had a number of visits there in her more formative years before she was adopted. She was a big girl now, however and she wasn't the patient. Still, she obviously wanted to stick by Jemma and make sure everything went smoothly, or as smoothly as they possibly could.

“See you soon?” Jemma asked hopefully, glancing at the paramedics, who nodded to let her know that was probable. She wanted to be warm at Bobbi’s house on the couch drinking some warm tea, not stuck in a not quite well heated hospital undergoing tests.

Skye gave her hand a squeeze and flashed a reassuring smile. "Soon as they let me," she agreed. "In the meantime I'll work on getting us a safe ride to Bobbi and Lance's place," she nodded and reluctantly let go of Jemma's hand. She climbed out of the ambulance behind them and grabbed both their bags to bring with her. She walked with the paramedics next to Jemma's bed as they went into the emergency room, but could go no further than that. They did require her to get checked over but we're quick to find that Skye had no physical injuries so she went to sit in the waiting room with the suitcases and th blanket from the ambulance to thaw out and warm up while she watch the clock and waited.    
  
First, she called her dad to assure him that she was safe, at the hospital with working cell service now and waiting to hear about Jemma's condition. Then she called Bobbi's number and slouched in her chair waiting for her to pick up. In this case, it took a ring and a half before Bobbi was on the line preemptively scolding her assuming Skye had missed her flight. Skye smirked to herself and listened, patiently waiting for Bobbi to get it all out of her system first. 

“Skye, where on earth are you? You never showed up and neither did Lance’s cousin, we’re down two people and me and Lance’s first Christmas hosting is all out of whack!” Bobbi groaned on the other end. “We’ve been waiting to see if you would show up late with the storm but Trip is getting hungry. I assume at this point that you missed your flight though?”

When Bobbi took a breath, Skye said. "I made my flight, thank you very much. I'm at the hospital, and Jemma's here too," she explained then added. "She got into an accident and then Bessie broke down on my after I stopped to help her and I had no cell service. We're both okay. Well, Jemma has a concussion at least and is in with the doctors right now." She explained.

“Wait... what?” Bobbi paused her verbal assault to take in the new information. Jemma and Skye hadn’t even known each other, but somehow they ended up at the hospital together. “What do you mean at least a concussion, is she alright?!”

Skye exhaled and checked the time on the clock again. "She swerved around a deer and skidded into a tree off the embankment by Wisteria Street?" She said. "She was unconscious when I found her, had hit her head on the steering wheel. I had no cell service so I got her into the van but it wouldn't start.  She was conscious and talking alright by the time we got here. I don't think she had any other major injuries but she's back with the doctors right now." She explained.

“Oh god, that’s a lucky coincidence.” Bobbi sighed. She felt guilty for immediately assuming Skye had missed the flight and was suddenly very glad Skye had been on her way at the exact time she had been. She was also curious to find out what the two may have been talking about. She couldn’t imagine how hilarious it would have been to watch them figure out they were both going to the same place.    
  
“I’m glad everyone’s okay...” Bobbi started, but she grinned with the phone in her hand. “So, how did you like her? Did she like the whole hero thing?”

Skye grimaced and let out a groaning sigh. "Oh, yeah she loved it once I convinced her I wasn't trying to kidnap and molest her it was all heart eyes and smooth sailing from there," she quipped, fully aware of how much Bobbi was going to delight in the detailed version of this story. This was not the first time Bobbi had intended to set her up with someone during one of her trips home,  although Skye had to admit - at least to herself! - that this one might be the most interesting yet.

“Well you have to admit the van can be a little creepy, Skye.” Bobbi chuckled. She was sure the story would be told in full once they finally reached the house, whenever that would be. “I’ll come and pick you two up in a more normal vehicle whenever you’re ready, just let me know when they’re ready to discharge Jemma.”

"Rude! You owe Bessie an apology whenever Pops has her towed to your place," Skye defended her home.  "Hopefully it won't be too much longer. Once she was awake she seemed to be mentally sound, not too disoriented outside of the head pain and hypothermia, not sure how long she was there before I came along," she held back on telling Bobbi that she'd actually thought Jemma was already dead when she'd first approached. "But I'll call you once they clear her."

“Ok, just let me know.” Bobbi sighed. Things had all gone wrong, but she was glad everyone was safe.

________________   
  
Once Jemma was cleared for discharged, Skye brought back her suitcase so Jemma could change into some of her own clothes to be more comfortable while Skye stepped out of the room to call Bobbi so she could start heading their way.    
  
Signing Jemma out of the hospital, they'd loaded up the very snow-capable SUV with their bags and rode to the Morse-Hunter household. Everyone launched into greetings, stories and laughter as they settled down to eat finally. Skye and Jemma seemed to hover around each other as they moved through the night, sitting by each other at dinner (though Skye knew that had been by original design by Bobbi anyhow), to sitting close together in the living room as everyone socialized after dinner. to Skye kept a close eye on Jemma as discreetly as she possibly could as well, mostly looking for any sign that the doctors missed some kind of bleeding in her brain from the head wound or just to make sure she wasn't over exerting herself considering what she'd been through. Skye couldn't seem to help herself on this, which wasn't necessarily out of the ordinary for her personality, but she frequently spotted Bobbi smirking at them from across the room when she caught Skye either exchanging a quiet conversation or silently exchanging a glance with an arched eyebrow to ask Jemma if she was still doing okay.    
  
Jemma had even set her head down on Skye's shoulder as the night wore on and from that moment, Skye determined not to move until Jemma was ready for bed or moved for some other reason just to make sure she remained comfortable.    
  
After everyone dispersed to their various sleeping arrangements, Skye changed into some flannel pajama pants and a loose sweatshirt and brushed her teeth in the bathroom. She wrapped a throw blanket around her shoulders and shuffled in her fluffy socks away from the upstairs living room where she was to sleep on the pull out sofa, to the next door guest room that Jemma was situated in.    
  
Knocking on the open door frame, Skye steppe through the threshold, glad they'd put Jemma in a room that had a fireplace for extra heat even if it was one of those fancy fake ones that could be turned on and off with a remote. "Hey," Skye felt suddenly bashful and wasn't sure why as the tips of her ears turned pink along with the tops of her cheeks. "I just, uh...y'know, wanted to make sure you were doing okay," again, like she had throughout the night, which she hoped wasn't annoying the hell out of Jemma.

“I’m feeling much better, thank you for asking.” Jemma smiled and moved over to sit on the bed to let Skye all the way into the room. She had on a tank top and shorts, but the house’s heating and the massive pile of blankets on the bed would be more than enough to make up for it.   
  
Jemma did begin fiddling with the edge of her shorts and looked down at her lap though, unsure of how to proceed. She and Skye had been perfect strangers several hours ago, but here they were on Christmas Eve together in a warm, quiet bedroom after the ordeal they’d had. She didn’t want to ask anything else of Skye after everything she’d done, but her concussion had almost been forgotten by everyone through the holiday festivities as Jemma was usually pretty good about hiding her pain and discomfort.    
  
“Would you mind being the one to keep waking me up?” Jemma asked. Nobody else had offered and Jemma had forgotten to ask before everyone went to bed, but here was Skye.

Skye nodded quickly. “Yeah, of course,"she said without hesitation, instantly relieved to have the task assigned to her as Jemma's well being was obviously on her mind and because it meant Jemma wasn't already annoyed that she'd been asking how she felt most of the night over and over again. "You're not feeling any excessive pain or anything right now, though, right?" She asked as she stepped further into the room and sat on the edge of the bed. Her eyes roamed over Jemma, she told herself it was because she was taking stock of physical welfare but part of it was because of her exposed skin, admittedly.

“Nothing unreasonable.” Jemma sighed and rubbed her temples a bit. She still had a ear splitting headache, but it was normal for taking such a hit.    
  
“You don’t have to just sit there, come lay down.” Jemma pat the bed right next to her and wiggled under the covers, holding them back for Skye.

Skye hadn’t expected Jemma to really invite her to lie down. She figured she would be moving back and forth between the two rooms they were supposed to be in. She wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth, though. Her cheeks flushed just slightly as she moved to climb into the free side of the bed under the the cover Jemma held up. She angled on her side so that Jemma could snuggle into her if she wanted to but she wasn’t necessarily forcing it on her. “Once we spend the night waking you up from restful sleep, we’ll be able to fill you full of more Christmas food and painkillers,” she said. “So there’s something to look forward to, yeah?” she offered a tiny smile and hazarded reaching up to tuck some of Jemma’s hair behind her ear and gently rubbed at her temple for her while she tried not to think about how much she would sure like to kiss Jemma. 

“Ah, Christmas food and painkillers,” Jemma feigned a wistful sigh. She couldn’t help her tongue darting out and licking her cracked lips when she saw the look in Skye’s eye. Their faces were close, only a few inches apart. “It’s hard to best a warm bed for two though.”

Skye’s eyes automatically dropped to Jemma’s lips when Jemma’s tongue struck out along her mouth like that. She smiled warmly at Jemma, feeling immensely relieved that she trusted her now and no longer suspected that she was a kidnapper of some sort. “Would it be terribly inappropriate if I kissed you while you were still concussed?” She finally mustered up the courage to ask it as her eyes shifted back to Jemma’s. She felt fairly confident Jemma wanted the same thing and hoped it wasn’t just her own false sense of confidence clouding her brain at the moment. 

“No more inappropriate than redressing me while unconscious.” Jemma chuckled, but she knew it had been necessary and was ready to make a joke out of her own overreaction. She didn’t realize this might sound like a rejection until it was too late, but she quickly corrected yourself. “Permission granted.” She grinned.

Skye cringed at the reminder, nose scrunching up and her cheeks flushing bright pink. She hadn’t even thought about it when she was doing it! She had been too busy freaking out that the stranger she’d just pulled from the car was close to death! It was purely clinical! She was just opening her mouth to profusely apologize again when Jemma spoke again. Skye’s eyes popped open and a relieved smile lit up her face instead. “Yeah?” She asked, but then gave her head a small shake for her blurted second guessing. She leaned forward before either of them could actually second guess it, Skye closed the gap between them and brought their mouths together for that kiss they’d originally almost shared in the van before emergency services had arrived. 

Jemma’s hand hesitantly found Skye’s waist, but when it did, she pulled her close and kissed her back with equal fervor. It felt as though the bed was instantly warmer beneath the covers and Jemma sighed into the kiss. When they parted, she grinned and bumped their noses together.

Skye exhaled a content sigh and touched Jemma’s cheek lightly. “I’ve been wanting to do that for hours,” she confessed, easily relaxing into their closeness beneath the covers. The terrible coldness from the van earlier that day easily forgotten in the combined body heat under the blanket. 

“Was it what you were expecting?” Jemma giggled. She had been thinking about this since they were interrupted in the van. Now that it had actually happened she had all kinds of butterflies in her stomach to distract her from the angry bees in her head.

"And more," Skye grinned at her. She certainly hadn't expected her day to end on such a high note when she'd pulled over to help a stranger. "Would you happen to be doing anything for New Year's Eve?" She asked,  feeling a surge in confidence after the kiss.

“You don’t need such a grand excuse to kiss me again.” Jemma chirped back at her. She caught her bottom lip between her teeth to contain her giddy smile. “But I do happen to be free.”

Skye had to duck her face down into the pillow and Jemma's shoulder to stifle off the snort of laughter that bubbled up from her throat as she blushed at the joke. Bobbi had really nailed it this time on her attempts to play matchmaker for Skye, she could see that already. She cleared her throat and lifted her head, still grinning and tried to sound as serious as possible as she said, "would you like to spend New Year's  Eve with me in that case? - I will happily spend the rest of tonight waking you up for concussion checks with a proper amount of kissing regardless of your answer, for the record," she teased. She figured she had it in the bag at this point for the holiday date (which hopefully would not feature any concussions) and for at least a few more kisses before they went to sleep. Honestly, she'd gone from feeling drained from the chaos of the day to feeling utterly hyper and wide awake now.

“I would love to.” Jemma nodded. Without really thinking about it, she scooted closer to Skye and tilted her head a bit to press a soft kiss against Skye’s lips. Car accident and all, Jemma had had worse Christmases than this. She had a feeling this was going to be one for the books.


End file.
